Recruiting African-American older adults for a community-based health promotion intervention: which strategies are effective?
BACKGROUND
The purpose of this article is to examine the effectiveness of recruitment strategies used to recruit African-American older adults for a senior center-based health promotion trial with a 6-month exercise component.


METHODS
We compared multiple strategies for recruiting participants from senior center members and other older adults residing in the surrounding predominantly African-American community. The phonathon, direct telephone recruitment by senior center leadership, is compared with traditional approaches.


RESULTS
All recruiting strategies combined yielded a total of 120 participants. Phonathons involving five or six senior center board members in two half-day sessions yielded 40 participants or 33% of all participants. Strategies categorized as printed media yielded 39 participants or 33% of all participants. Strategies categorized as word-of-mouth yielded 31 participants or 26% of all participants. Remaining approaches accounted for an additional 10 participants or 8% of all participants.


CONCLUSIONS
Our results support employing a multifaceted recruitment approach and demonstrate the importance of strong linkages between the research team and community leaders in conducting health promotion research in minority communities. An innovative approach, the phonathon, may be a potentially important recruitment strategy.
Coleman
E A
EA
Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholars Program, Department of Medicine, School of Public Health and Community Medicine, University of Washington, Seattle, USA.
Tyll
L
L
LaCroix
A Z
AZ
Allen
C
C
Leveille
S G
SG
Wallace
J I
JI
Buchner
D M
DM
Grothaus
L C
LC
Wagner
E H
EH
D001741:Black or African American / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D000368:Aged; D005260:Female; D006293:Health Promotion / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010342:Patient Acceptance of Health Care / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D018579:Patient Selection; D015397:Program Evaluation; D016032:Randomized Controlled Trials as Topic; D014861:Washington